Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Former South African President
Nelson Mandela isn’t in any danger and may be discharged as
early as tomorrow after being hospitalized due to a “long-standing” abdominal complaint, the country’s presidency said.

Mandela, 93, is “fine and fully conscious and the doctors
are satisfied with his condition,” after a diagnostic
procedure, the presidency said in a statement on its website
today.

“He was in good health before admission in hospital but
doctors felt the complaint needed a thorough investigation,”
the presidency statement said.

Mandela became South Africa’s first black president after
apartheid, the official racial segregation policy, ended in
1994. He spent 27 years in prison, fighting for black rights,
before he was released in 1990. He negotiated a peaceful end to
the old regime with leaders of South Africa’s white minority
government. Three years later, he won the Nobel Peace Prize, and
he stepped down as president voluntarily in 1999.

His hospital admission today was “long arranged and
therefore it’s not an emergency admission,” the ruling African
National Congress party said in an e-mailed statement today.

The presidency won’t disclose the name of the hospital
where Mandela is being treated, presidency spokesman Mac Maharaj
said by mobile phone.

Mandela was admitted to Netcare Milpark Hospital in
Johannesburg briefly a year ago for an acute respiratory
infection. He had radiotherapy treatment in 2001 after doctors
found microscopic prostate cancer.

He moved back to Johannesburg on Jan. 29 after spending
several months at his house in Qunu in the Eastern Cape
province, the Johannesburg-based Sunday Times reported on that
day, citing Maharaj.

‘Icon and Inspiration’

South Africa’s largest labor group and a member of ruling
alliance, the Congress of South African Trades Unions, called
Mandela its “icon and inspiration.” Cosatu is “concerned at
the news” and wishes him a speedy recovery, the union said in
an e-mailed statement today.

President Jacob Zuma said last week the animal images on
all of the country’s banknotes will be replaced with those of
Mandela, saying it’s a “befitting tribute to the man who became
a symbol of his country’s struggle for human rights and
democracy.”

Mandela retired from public life after campaigning for
children’s rights, global peace and greater access to treatment
for AIDS sufferers. South Africa’s constitution allows for no
more than two presidential terms.